“I mean, there was a lot of chilli and it really felt like heartburn,” the Winston Hills businessman said.
Glenn, who is the BNI franchisee for north western Sydney, was on a break in Noosa, but was not taking a break from his morning regimen of a good 6km walk.
But it was not heartburn that slowed him down. To Glenn’s and his family’s horror, a major artery in his heart was 99 per cent blocked.
“This is the artery that, if blocked, takes people out,” Glenn said, hardly believing his close encounter with death.
The shock diagnosis came a week after the first incident when, again while on a walk, Glenn felt pain radiating to his back.
There had been no spicy food ingested the night before so Glenn could not write it off as indigestion this time.
He rang his doctor immediately who asked him to walk a bit more and call back if he felt worse. Glenn did not enjoy that second call to his doctor.
Promptly booked into Hills Private Hospital to have a stent inserted in the blocked artery through an artery in his groin, Glenn was in his fifth week of his six week rehabilitation when he spoke to WSBA and starting to feel well.
His family, including his wife and 17-month-old grandson, know how lucky they are. The 55-year-old considered himself “reasonably fit” after taking up regular exercise since being diagnosed with Diabetes 2 six years ago.
“I was probably undiagnosed for 10 years. The diagnosis forced me to look at what I ate and how much I exercised,” he said.
“Walking 6 kms every day was my way of dropping weight and helping the diabetes. I had become fit, the diabetes was under control and my cholesterel was fine.”
But, with his long working days, often starting with breakfast meetings and ending with after five business events, watching what he ate and how much time he exercised was not that easy.
Plus, there is that little matter of his heavy smoking days.
“I was a heavy smoker - about 50 a day but I gave that up in 1996. There has to be be some effect from that,” Glenn said.
Speaking during his last week of rehab, Glenn said he was almost back to his old self. But he is excited to get back to his forgotten old, old self.
He explained that when someone has had an unknown heart condition for some time, they accept how they feel as normal, forgetting the more energetic person they had been.
“I am looking forward to having that energy I used to have. I am getting there.”
Glenn knows that like many men, he ignored - note the past tense - early warning signs about his health.
“Men tend not to go to doctors when they should and can ignore early signs that things are not right,” he said.
